Cara Lugo [Complete]

Chapter Eight: The Royal Court

Storyline:

"Tell me another one!" The Princess claps and wiggles on her chair.

While certainly not out of the ordinary for her, especially in areas which could hold prying ears and eyes, this was a little uncalled for. There were people around, most likely those of high-status and some sort of power or another. They could see this behaviour unfold, and they did, eating it up with wide and greedy eyes.

Now there Cara stood (or rather sat) in between a rock and a hard place. Was she to please the Princess and displease all the others by telling yet another story about a rebellious and rambunctious woman or would it be better to please a room full of people a risk displeasing the Princess and causing whispers to spread? It was near-impossible to tell which would backfire the most.

Never would Cara have ever thought she would play diplomat and right into the hands of those she sought to piss off her entire not-so-long life. Never would she have considered which would be the safest option instead of wreaking havoc and causing wide-spread distress. She wondered if it had something to do with the conspicuous lack of her saner, calm brother or something they put into the food to addle her mind.

Whatever it was, she knew what she'd do. Please the Princess as she was Cara's ticket off to see the King. Gain an audience with him was her only goal, after all. There had been whispers in her mind that she should just keep quiet so as to stay securely in this safe position. She banished that thought as quickly as it had come for not only would her cover be blown before long, she would never comply with the system as so many did. She was here, she would be in the same room as the King, alone, and on that day, all hell would break loose, just as she likes it.

So, she wrote her thoughts down, her worries, and worded her hatred for all this again, as she had written many times before in the pile of papers sitting on her desk. Right after she had burned it as it was not safe enough in the castle for her to add to the pile once she got out. She could always re-write. As she watched the ink-stained papers blacken, the fires within herself reignited to the same dark burn that had been there when she spat in the faces of the guards. It was a surprise they had not recognized her when she passed them. Maybe it was the hair. First this she was doing was cutting that as short as could be the moment chaos started.

"Christy?" The Princess asked, the tapping of her foot taking on an impatient beat. "Another story?"

It had only been seconds, and Cara's failure to deliver was already bringing looks. Everyone always watched far more closely than it appeared. Gossip was the best story, and scandal was the best gossip. These people were so bored out of their minds, it was all they had to stop the sounds of clinking glasses from driving them insane.

"Oh yes, sorry Princess." Cara's voice cracked with exhaustion and dehydration. "What sort would you like to hear?"

Cara already knew the answer. The same as the last hundreds of times. Adventurous rebels living their lives from one day to the next. A story of a hero, but the home or compassionate side. Or perhaps, in other words, the tale of Cara, told from the perspective of the heroine herself. Her likes, dislikes, and the little details that the passive observer missed. Her opinions on matters that were told in such a way that the elite always turned a mottled shade of red and started to vibrate like an angered potato-sized dog.

True to her nature, the Princess frowned slightly and reiterated what she had before. "The same sort of story as before."

Cara smiled graciously, ready to start talking when an elderly lady who smelled like dust and forgotten perfumes grabbed her arm in a claw-like grip. "I hear what you're telling the young lady, and I'd be careful if I were you." She spoke as if the Princess was not even less than a foot away from her, and to the Princess's credit, she did not even react, keeping a vapid expression on her face. "She's an impressionable one and we wouldn't want her getting the wrong ideas here now, would we?"